Sore Subject

June 17, 2008

Did anyone notice that my last blog post accumulated 4 comments about saddle sores, in the form of an ongoing conversation? I don’t really know what to think of that, besides that I’m the master of clever and witty blog titles. “Sore Subject”… ha ha ha! Brilliant!

The road trip consisting of Philly Week and Nature Valley GP has come and gone with varying levels of success – long breakaway at Philly, half the team (and half the peloton) battling severe heat stroke, yellow jersey for a bit at Nature Valley, 6 guys in the top 10 at NV’s TT (six!), and finishing up with 2 in the top 5 on GC. I’m now back home in scenic Asheville, NC for a week of unpacking the road trip duffle bag, packing all of my belongings, moving into a house temporarily until I figure out what will be happening with my life beginning in about September, and then packing again for a trip back to my roots of Brentwood, NH all within the next week. I’ve decided that’s entirely too much action for just seven days, so I’m sitting at the greatest coffee shop in all of Asheville contemplating how to tackle this laundry list of chores. Sounds not too far amiss from my broffa Robbie’s recent endeavors.

During Philly Week, I ran into my New England friends Kevin and Todd. Kevin likes boxes, as shown here by his t-shirt. An “I HEART Boxes” sticker next to a smoking bird wearing a hat. Kevin doesn’t even have to speak and he cracks me up.

In addition to seeing these former collegiate nemeses, I had a whole slew of blasts from the past, that I’m sure very few of you care about, but I’ll still mention because I think it’s cool and important. At Philly, unbeknownst to me, my friend from high school, Dynah, has since moved to Philly and was out spectating with the best of ’em on Manayunk. Unbeknownst to her, I’ve taken up professional bike racing and therefore was racing in this crazy spandex colored spectacle. She wouldn’t have had any idea that I was there among the other 200 dudes except that I was in the break for 4 hours and the announcer atop Manayunk was shouting my name every lap. Cool.

Next came the Granola Bar Grand Prix in Minnesota and I had another former high school friend, Isaac, come out to the Stillwater Crit. See him there on the right?! Yeah, neither do I, but he did magically pick me out of the crowd as I was cruising around town looking for coffee. The crowds were awesome at Stillwater, and he was there somewhere among the other 5,000 screaming fans. He AND my college friend with a massive cardiovascular motor, Garrott Kuzzy. Garrott’s awesome. He’s probably the fittest guy I know, and being from Minnesota he’s likely the nicest guy I know too. (Kuzzy, you are from Minnesota, right?)

Think reunion time is over? Not quite yet. On my tour-of-the-east-coast-airports-trip-home, I totally randomly ran into an aquaintence from high school, Kara. Yeah, we’re probably not classified as friends, except on Facebook, but we chatted in Charlotte airport and it was noteworthy all the same.